How to Teach a Kid to Hate Reading

Here's me and RITA Finalist Darynda Jones at the RITA ceremonies at RWA 2018. A fabulous evening!

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is Which “Classic” Author’s Work Do You Loathe and Why?

Mine? THE DEERSLAYER, by James Fenimore Cooper.

Yes, I read it in 5th or 6th grade - because I was forced to - but the scars remain. I had been pushed into some sort of advanced reading pod with other unsuspecting dolphins book lovers, and told that we had to read this book.

It was the first time IN MY LIFE that I DIDN'T ENJOY READING.

I mean, my mother read to me every night, until I started reading over her shoulder and correcting her mistakes. At which point, she threw up her hands and just handed me the books. I think I was about six. I was allowed to check out five books a week from the library and it was an effort to make them last. Once I had allowance money, I spent it on books. I read books in class, on the playground, at home, in the car. I even invited my friends to come over and read.

I was that kid.

Probably a lot of you were, too.

So to make me hate reading took a lot of effort. I still remember the woman who insisted I should like this book. When I told her I didn't want to read it, she said I had to.

I loathed everything about it and her.

Many years later I found the Mark Twain essay, Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, which made me feel at least validated in my loathing. But really, at ten or eleven, I wasn't thinking about all those excellent points Twain makes. I hated reading about this guy who was boring and hateful at once, about women being scalped and raped, and about things I had zero interest in.

This kind of thing is how we teach kids to hate reading. I know things have gotten better and I celebrate those teachers and librarians out there putting books into kids' hands, helping them find books to LOVE.

That's what reading should be about.

Projects I Have Abandoned

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Do I ever abandon projects? Crafts projects, yes. I used to have an entire sewing room full of bins of fabric and patterns. I was always way more ambitious than my skills actually allowed for. I only just got rid of two fabric turkeys that had been sitting half done for maybe twenty years. In fairness to myself, I did finish two of said turkeys at the time in the 1990’s and OMG were they a LOT of work. I had a needlepoint kit my late husband bought me right after we were married (because I wanted to try it) that sat for even longer than the turkeys, with a few stitches and the threaded needle jabbed into the canvas, until I eventually sold it on eBay because it was a vintage pattern by that time.

I completed a ton of projects in the same time frame – doll clothes, doll quilts, elaborate Halloween costumes, frilly nightgowns for my daughters and their dolls, ornamental pillows, appliqued Christmas tree skirts, all my own clothes in college, pinch pleat fully lined drapes for the bedroom, etc. But for many other projects, the thought of the task and buying the necessary supplies were as far as I got. Either I wasn’t patient enough, my skills weren’t up to the task and the item wasn’t going to look remotely like the photo on the pattern cover, there wasn’t time, I lost interest, newer and shinier stuff came along…

Yeah, our project was MUCH teenier in scope than this!
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In the day job, we abandoned projects on occasion, usually because the government failed to continue funding them. One I still remember fondly was for a miniature airplane to explore Mars. It would have been an early precursor of a drone, although controlled by its own computer, since the lag time between Earth and Mars wouldn’t have allowed for human control. The group I supervised at the time had been assigned to handle all the contracts in the developmental phase and we loved ‘owning’ it and working so closely with the scientists. But alas.

In the writing world? No, I don’t abandon projects. If an idea gets far enough with me that I’m putting words on the page, I’ll finish the book. The fact I’m working on it means I was excited enough about the characters and the plot to need to tell the story and my Muse is fully engaged. I may set a book aside if another book comes to me overnight full-fledged and demanding to be written, like Star Cruise: Marooned did, or Jadrian, but then I return to whatever I had been working on previously and finish it.

Shrug. Everyone works differently and fortunately there’s no one ‘right way’ to be an author or to pursue a writing career!

The Lost

This is going to be short because both my Surface and my Alienware laptops have been possessed by demons and are refusing to function correctly. Let's see if I can beat the weird on this box before it nails shut my digital coffin.

Projects. Do I abandon them? Yes. All the time.

Lots of ideas. ALL THE TIME with the ideas. But I have a strict rule. If I'm working on another book, the idea takes a number and stands in line. This means a page or two of notes and/or character information to remind me what caught my attention in the first place. Then it gets stuck in a file. When I finish a book and want another project, I rifle through my idea folders and see what jumps out at me. Some ideas were never that great to begin with and they die right there. And I will say that 90% of projects that get abandoned are abandon at the idea stage when they have very little invested in them.

But we're really asking about books. Not ideas. And yes. I do have books that I've abandoned. Completed books that will never see the light of day simply because they represent learning curve. It's painfully obvious when you look at them that I had no idea what I was doing - or that I was in the messy process of figuring out what I was doing. Maybe. We've talked about them before.

I have a book that's finished and sitting - not quite abandoned - it's stewing, I think, because it had a flaw in the telling of the story that I believe I now know how to solve. No problem. I'm just in the middle of finishing a series. It gets priority.

So while I won't say 'never' - I will say that I haven't yet abandoned a book in progress since I got published. But the temptation to do so right about now is REAL. I'm at that whiny 'but this is haaaaaaard' stage of composition and that's the point when historically, things have broken free for me in figuring out the last bits. I'm counting on that.

Assuming that at least one of the computers will cooperate. That I've made it this far without incident (the Surface likes to random close what I'm working on for reasons as yet unknown) I suspect I have a heat issue on this box. Heat death. It took my gaming box and now it's coming for my writing box.

I might as well go for a swim in the gator pond.

Putting Projects on the Backburner

If you go up to a writer and say, "I've got this idea for a book", if they're being honest, they will probably say something along the lines of "I don't need ideas, I need time."

Ideas are pretty easy.  Manifesting them is the tough part.

I rarely truly abandon projects.  I have a few "terminal cases", projects that I really have no intention to get back to any time in the near future, but are they truly "abandoned"? Or are they in a wood-lined cask, aging and ripening until they're ready? 

Not sure.

At this point, it's more a matter of priorities.  Which projects need to be done now (because, say, they're under contract), and which are for somewhere down the road.
Speaking of Down The Road, THE WAY OF THE SHIELD is out soon, and you have two possible chances to win an ARC before it comes out.  One is to come to ArmadilloCon, where I'll be teaching the writers workshop and appearing on panels.  The first person to come up to me an make a decent attempt at reciting the Tarian Oath will get one ARC:

“With Shield on arm and sword in hand
I will not yield, but hold and stand,
As I draw breath, I’ll allow no harm,
And fight back death, with shield on arm.”

Now, what if you can't come to Austin, I fully understand.  Here's the other way: below I’m going to put eight hints for the titles of eight prospective Maradaine Phase II Novels. And so we’re on the same page, these titles each would represent Book Four and Five of the four respective series, but I’ve mixed up the order so it’s not completely obvious what’s what.

Email your guesses to me before AUGUST 1st, 2018.  The entry that is the most correct (or, barring that, most entertaining in incorrectness) will win an ARC (limited to mailing in US and Canada).  Sound good?  Here goes:
The Q_____ G_____
The A_____ of C_____
The S_____ of the C_____
An U_____ of U_____ M_____
The C_____ of the C_____
A P_____ of P_____
The N_____ K_____ of R_____ S_____
A_____ and D_____
Happy guessing!

As Elsa would say, let that stuff go.

52.

I have 52 manuscripts in my Just Writing dropbox folder. Some are complete, some have a couple of filled-in scenes and then basically a synopsis to remind me how I meant the story to go. None of them are sellable or even readable.

Not sure about all authors, but I get ideas a lot. I'll think, whoa, I'd really like to read a paranormal romance where the heroine hooks up with a not-as-evil-as-he-seems anti-Christ sort of dude. So I go off and write 60k (so, so dodgy) words because I'm so into the idea... and then I stumble across a book on a shelf somewhere that has already dealt with the topic. Brilliantly. Perfectly. (Thank you, Darynda Jones. Your version is the one the world needed.)

So anyway, my answer to this week's question -- do you ever abandon a project, and if so why? -- is yes, and because sharing the story isn't necessary. It was enough to have written it to settle my own brain.

See, thing is, not every idea that bubbles up in a writer's brain is going to work for actual readers. And not every writer is capable of writing every idea they have.

It's okay to put that first manuscript in a drawer. It's okay to say, you know what, there just isn't room in the market for another Harry Potter clone. (Inner voice says, "Yeah, but ours is with fresh-out-of-high-school new adults learning magic as a profession and how to adult and ..." and I say, "Shut up, inner voice. Seriously, just shut up.") It's okay to realize you've grown as a writer since you started working on that space opera that, let's be honest, was just a Deep Space Nine fanfic with substituted names.

It's okay to write those for-pleasure idea bursts. It's even okay to love them.

And it's also okay to let them go. 

5 Reasons Projects Are Abandoned

No one likes to say "I give up." We're taught from a young age that quitting is a horrible character flaw. On the other hand, the older we get, the more we understand we can't do everything. Our time, energy, and resources are limited.

Therefore, here are 5 Reasons I Abandon Projects:

1) Don't fit the schedule
My analytical project manager brain always assigns priorities, rankings if you will, to projects. A leftover from my dot-com days that says if dates slip then features drop. Features, in this case, could be a free short story to include in a newsletter or a perma-free novella told from an alternate POV to boost sales to a series.

2) No longer the right solution to a goal
When planning projects for the next year to 18 months, things change. ~gasp~ Meanwhile, I'm learning more about the business through classes, shared best practices, or trial and error. What was once the best strategy has to be revised. If my goal is to increase sales by 8% over 6 months, how I get there can absolutely result in me dumping one strategy if a less resource-demanding solution comes along.

3) Increase in price
Inflation is real. Budgets are necessary. P&Ls are good business practices. Market changes happen. That awesome resource that was affordable in the planning stages but has since increased its fees so its now out of budget? That kills a project toot sweet. Then are the projects for which I budgeted X but didn't properly account for all the inputs, so it should never have been in my plans in the first place. ~doh!~

4) Unnecessary
It was a genius concept when it was hatched, but it had a window of opportunity that closed, the strategy was trashed in favor of something else, or a third-party stepped up to provide the service/solution/alternative means (aka I'm not the one who has to do the work anymore, woot!).


5) Sailing A Sinking Ship
If it's a group project and key players are flaking out--barring a legal or financial cost of non-delivery--I'm not going to stick around to salvage the project. I spent a lot of my corporate days being the fixer, the catcher, the patcher, and the cleaner. If I'm not being paid handsomely to play those parts, I am not assuming ownership of someone else's failures. Similarly, if it's a group project and it comes to light that asshats abound, I will bail. It's not worth having my brand/reputation dragged through the mud on a crap product associated with crappier people. Harsh? Maybe. Too damn old to care. 
Note: It's not to say I'll run away if things get complicated; I take my commitments very seriously. However, I've been in this game long enough to recognize collaborative and creative abuse.

There's no shame in reevaluating a project for its usefulness, its cost (opportunity and financial), or its ROI. That's just smart living. Needs evolve. Strategies evolve. Projects are dumped while others are picked up. If it's not the right project for the goal you want to achieve, then kill it and move on.

Quitters, Inc?

So this weeks topic is When do you quit a project, or do you?

the answer is, of course, you don't. Unless you are forced to.

Let me explain. I don't like quitting a project, I might set it on a back burner for a while, but I seldom if ever actually QUIT a project. To do so is to admit defeat, and I am as stubborn as they come when I want to be. I always want to be stubborn when it comes to my writing projects.

If that sounds like bragging, it isn't meant to.  I think stubborn comes with the  territory when it comes to being a successful writer. No one is ever successful who surrenders to the whims of fate or to publishing.

Okay, time for one of my favorite Harlan Ellison quotes (May he rest in peace, and I'm paraphrasing.) Basically w hat Harlan said was that to be a writer requires a certain amount of arrogance. First, to believe that anyone would want to read what you have written and second to presume that anyone would want to PAY for the privilege.

I don't think he''s wrong. But it's more than that, i think if you're serious about this business, then you have to be willing to dig in yoru heels and make something work, even when it fights you.

So, a few years back I decided I wanted to write a supernatural noir thriller.  Just sounded like something I'd like, so I sat down and started writing. roughly 45, 000 words into the project I turned to my friend Tom Piccirilli and said, "Tom, does this suck?" Tom and I started off around the same time. the differences are numerous but among them are the following: My shortest novel is fifteen thousand words longer than his longest novel. He was the one that pointed that out, by the way. I am words faster than Tom was at his very best speed, and oh, yeah, he won volumes of literary awards and I have been nominated a few times.

Tom is another soul lost to us these days and he is missed and if you have nto read his words, you should rectify that as quickly as possible, because he was an amazing writer in addition to being an amazing man.

I asked Tom for a favor and he did it for me. he read my 45,000 words of noir/crime/horror fiction and then he gently, carefully, wrapped the brass knuckles around his fists and tuned my ass up.  he was gentle, but he was brutal and he was honest. Turns out that maybe, just maybe, you should READ some of the genre's you'd like to write about. The kindest thing he said was that what I had written read like it was done by someone who had only ever seen the worst noir movies and thought that gave a good understanding of the genre.

He was not wrong. Currently, for kicks, I'm reading through the file and cringing a lot, because, really you should torture yourself when the ego considered getting out of hand. There is nothing technically wring with the writing. The story is fine.but there adept skill required to deliver the take is not there.

The good news? I now understand the genres involved a lot better and there are parts of this story I can use.  Most of it, really.  Surgery is required, but we can save this poor, misbegotten wretch. there might be scars, but it's salvageable as bits and pieces of something else. I'm already working the bloody thing out in my head.

There has been exactly one project I have abandoned. I was writing a sequel to my novel FIREWORKS and plugging merrily away when my computer decided to crash. When I say crash I mean epic failure. Complete devastation. The hard drive was a ruin.

I had not backed up my 40,000 words of work.

I looked through every disc I had, checked to see if I had emailed myself etc. Nothing. nada.

A little over 40,000 words. roughly 250 typed, double pages of work were lost.  even now, well over a decade later, when I think about the loss part of me just withers. I keep telling myself, maybe someday, but let's be honest here: No, it ain't gonna happen.

But bits and pieces of what I'd planned to do have been incorporated into another novel in progress.

So, no, I don't believe in quitting a project if I can help it.

You want to be a quitter? Maybe writing isn't the field fo expertise you should aim for.

Just saying.

Keep smiling,

Jim

Fish or Cut Bait?

I'm in Denver for the #RWA18 National Conference. I think this sculpture of the dancing ladies is particularly appropriate.

This week's topic at the SFF Seven is Why do you abandon a project? What would make you (or let you) finish it?

I’m not much for abandoning projects. I don’t ever dramatically burn pages or delete documents. Now, some have gone into the equivalent of purgatory, languishing (possibly forever) in a file folder I may or may not be able to find. Some projects have been organ donors, giving up vital sections so another story may live. Those get laid to rest with reverence and celebration.

But why do I abandon projects? Usually it has to do with being able to sell them. That’s not the be-all and end-all, as I’ve certainly self-published some projects that were difficult to sell. But if the people who support me aren’t enthusiastic about a project, there’s usually a good reason for it.

As for what it would take for me to finish it, the first and most important reagent in this chemical equation is time. I’d need to be not working on something else. But that’s an oversimplification, because “time” in this sense is truly determined by priorities. In other words, devoting the time to finishing that would have to be more important than working on something else. Often that something else is more immediately marketable, so that would have to alter.

But I can totally see a day when I’ve finished some of my current series and one of these back-burner projects becomes relevant again.

Here’s three projects I abandoned and why – and what it would take for me to pick it up again:

1.     A narrative nonfiction book about my college sorority

My editor said I wasn’t ready to write it and to put it in a drawer for a year. That was 2005 or thereabouts, so 13 years ago. That one could still happen, if I get a yen to go back to nonfiction.

2.     A memoir about my grandparents and their scandalous marriage.

This is something I worked on for my Ucross Foundation Fellowship, a LONG time ago. I’m not entirely sure I know why I put it down. It felt massive at the time and it could be I didn’t have the chops to write it. Same as above.

3.     A twisty shamanistic magic tale

That’s an overly simple way of describing a complex story that would be a lengthy series, if I can get it right. I’ve written the first book twice in one genre – and massively revised several times – and did 100 pages in another. The first time I wrote it, I definitely didn’t have the chops to pull it off. Maybe even the next few times. It will get picked up again, when I feel I can do it justice.

In today’s podcast, I mention the reading Darynda Jones and I did at the SFF Reading Series at Denver’s BookBar last night, and how we discussed the importance of finishing writing projects. It IS critically important for newbie writers to learn to finish a novel or story. But there’s also no shame in realizing you don’t yet have the skills to execute it. The trick, of course and always, is being able to tell the difference. Thus it’s always better to finish it. At least write it and tie it off. Then, if you have to set it aside and write something else to hone your craft, then do that.

Abandoned projects aren’t dead, just sleeping. They’ll wait for you to be ready.